With the new software updates to the Premiere you can now "multi room stream" so you could watch content from any one TiVo on the others in the house (that are all Premieres, all with the same updated software) so you wouldn't need to be as concerned about which TiVo where is storing which content.

That said, I'd still advise following the "wife gets her own" rule for as long as she (like my daughter it seems) continues to employ the "keep until I delete" setting.

As to how many Tivo's are too many and such... I've got my own Premiere XL with the stock drive in it, a Premiere with stock drive in it for my master bedroom, shared with my Mrs., a Premiere with stock drive in it in our living room (for everyone to share), a Premiere with stock drive in it for my step-daughter's bedroom, and a Premiere with a 2TB drive in it that will go into my daughter's room eventually but is currently offline while she cleans and makes room in there for it to be setup. (No cable drop there currently, so no way to get the FiOS channels on it yet).

I've also got an HTPC that uses a Ceton card with 4 tuners available to it (that is a bit finnicky, but works well enough that I watch much of the live TV that I would catch on it).

Before we had the option to do the multi-room streaming, I had that many boxes just to make sure we each had a TiVo available to us where we'd want it at. Now that we could stream from any box to any of the others, it's less frustrating and time consuming waiting for content to be copied from one box to the other through the home network.

Once I invested in the boxes though, and had lifetime on them, I pretty much quit worrying about how many I had, as long as no one else was monopolizing space on the boxes that I wanted to have recording my favorite shows, all is good

Well, as I noted earlier in the thread, a small amount has. When my wife's TiVo fills up, she will indeed delete recordings, because she's forced into it. She knows if she doesn't, the TiVo will stop recording, which would really bug her.

So she will actually delete recordings, if forced into it.

You need to get her to clean the house and cook, then she wouldn't have time to watch Tivo!

Interesting to see this thread is still humming along (I posted back in 6/03). My situation is still unchanged: 2 upgraded Tivos, 1 for my wife's stuff, and the other for my stuff and some we both watch. Her's is chronically full, sometimes requiring priority work as it's going to be totally full in a couple days (stop recording). I don't monitor it, so it could actually get full sometimes and I may not notice. Mine is more manageable, but it does still have some old stuff. For example, we still have last year's Superbowl because my wife hasn't gone through it to watch the ads yet.

Still, the system works. I don't stress about it because I'm not going to miss anything due to no disk space.

Getting a second Tivo (the Tivo itself was free, but lifetime cost) was some of the best money I've spent.

I've got an 80 hour series two TiVo. We've several season passes, with the option: "Keep until I delete". I've watched everything I want, and am ready to delete, but my wife is severely behind on watching the programs. The TiVo is almost full now, and often when I try to schedule a new program it says it can't schedule because it's out of memory.

(Actually, it's projecting that by the time the show airs, it'll be out of memory because of the "To Do" list, but as the season's really over now, the only stuff in my To Do list are 3 season passes my wife has set up for our 3 year old son -- educational cartoons. These are also "keep until I delete", but my wife has agreed to let me archive these to VHS as soon as they record. Therefore, by the time my desired shows will air, the TiVo really won't be out of memory, but it doesn't know that. A solution is for me to wait until just before the air date, and then schedule a recording.)

My wife is unwilling to delete anything, because she wants to watch it all. (There's quite a prodigious amount recorded right now.) She also doesn't know when she'll have time to watch stuff. She won't change "Keep until I delete" to an expiration date, because she can't guarantee when she'll watch the stuff. Our TiVo is effectively no longer an 80 hour TiVo, but a 6-7 hour TiVo, and it's still shrinking. Soon I'll be TiVoless. [sounds of shocked awe]. She's jeopardizing my TiVo experience. Solutions?

netflix, season shows...amazon prime tv shows, dvd rentals or buy of entire season, comcast video on demand.
Lastly, if not copyrighted, use a program to pull them to the computer.
Finally, get a second tivo, one for her recordings (that will no longer record as it is out of space) and one for you to watch things.

last thing I can think of is...'yes dear' and go mow the lawn.

__________________
I use a Channel guide to find neat stuff to watch.
I flip from channel to channel to watch things.
Pry my 'prev channel' button from my cold dead hands

I cringe when people reply to the initial problem expressed in the OP without reading the thread to find out what steps have already been taken.

I am still not clear how the situation is substantially different than in the OP. it's just a matter of details and a few technology updates. The OP's wife still hasn't let go of her attachment to recording and saving shows that she will never have time to watch. I won't even attempt to dissect the OP's relationship with his wife and their control over disc space and technology purchases.

Hang on while I cancel my cable contract and unplug my TiVo. I have stuff on this TiVo dated January 2011 that I still haven't watched.

__________________Sheldon: You know, in difficult moments like this, I often turn to a force greater than myself.
Amy: Religion?
Sheldon: Star Trek.

I have stuff on this TiVo dated January 2011 that I still haven't watched.

That's all? Heck, I had older stuff than that lost when Tivo drive(s) went bad.. (One S3 drive, as well as the S3 it was in.. don't power on.. The drive went kaput too -- isn't recognized when hooked to a computer, but seems to spin up -- hope to someday try to buy an identical controller card.. and then revive the S3 maybe with a PS... and separate TivoHD drive went into reboot forever loop.)

But going back to the ORIG drive, I finally was getting some old Last Call with Carson Daly episodes from 2007/2008 off (keep musical performances.. semi-hoarding, I intend to some eon make MP3s or AACs out of them to listen to on my iPod/iPhone).

But when the S3/drive was functional, I had things from SEVERAL YEARS before that, and WOULD sometimes eventually get addicted to an old show and catch up. (But alas, I lost at least a full season of Cold Case.. Yes it's in reruns, but (1) those are hacked up, including (2) music changes.)

Well, as I noted earlier in the thread, a small amount has. When my wife's TiVo fills up, she will indeed delete recordings, because she's forced into it. She knows if she doesn't, the TiVo will stop recording, which would really bug her.

So she will actually delete recordings, if forced into it.

Why not set up a PC with TiVo Desktop. Then you can transfer the recordings and have unlimited storage potential.

I do have to wonder what TimCKelley's wife is going to do when/if that overly full TiVo dies or, more specifically, if the drive in it dies and she loses all of that hoarded up programming.

I know there's still content that can't be legally obtained on DVD and/or Blu-ray, or found for legal streaming/download over the internet, but so much content is available that way, and so many channels exist on most cable systems that it seems silly to me to go too crazy on setting up keep until I delete recordings.

I know I'm a fine one to talk with so many TiVos in my home and so much capacity shared among them (not to mention my own HTPC), but I really don't fret over missing shows. Eventually they'll be available or I just won't bother watching them. If I que up too many shows, I figure it's a message to me that I just don't need to watch whatever it was.

Heck, I even bought a couple of larger drives that I intended to put into the TiVo boxes and never bothered upgrading because I didn't want to take the time to do it and didn't feel that pinched for space over the long haul.

Why not set up a PC with TiVo Desktop. Then you can transfer the recordings and have unlimited storage potential.

That's a feature that I have taken advantage of a few times. I try not to do that too often, but when I see something go by that I'd really like to save, I admit that I will pull a copy back to the PC and the convert it to iTunes so I can take it with me on my iPad or iPhone later if desired.

Why not set up a PC with TiVo Desktop. Then you can transfer the recordings and have unlimited storage potential.

I think a lot of the stuff she records is copyright protected (not premium channels though, we don't have any premium channels), so she can't move it off the TiVo.

BTW, I'm not sure that she puts everything at KUID anymore like she did years ago. She still might be making prodigious use of it, but maybe she still might have some stuff with expiries. (But I'm not sure.)

Still, even then, when the TiVo fills up, she would still delete stuff, because then the TiVo will choose what to delete among the expiry stuff, and I think she wants to make that decision instead of the box making it.

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I am still not clear how the situation is substantially different than in the OP. it's just a matter of details and a few technology updates. The OP's wife still hasn't let go of her attachment to recording and saving shows that she will never have time to watch. I won't even attempt to dissect the OP's relationship with his wife and their control over disc space and technology purchases.

Hang on while I cancel my cable contract and unplug my TiVo. I have stuff on this TiVo dated January 2011 that I still haven't watched.

Two posts above mine, someone recommended he upgrade to a larger hard drive. This is just a dozen or so posts after tim has explained that he just put a 2 TB hard drive in his wife's TiVo and their family now has 4 TiVos. That poster clearly hadn't read very far into the thread before offering a suggestion. That's all I was getting at.

Hard as it is to believe, my wife is saying she'd like to get a 5th TiVo for the house. I suggested if it's a space problem, how about I just get extra hard drive space, and she can transfer shows to a computer or something.

I think partly she doesn't like that idea because if how hard she thinks it will be to do the transferring. I don't think it would be that hard. It's been a long time since I've ever done that, but I remember it being fairly simple, and I'm sure I could teach her how to do it.

But she brings up another point. When she's folding clothes (my son's bedroom is where she folds clothes), she'd like to watch TiVo there in my son's room.

Here is where our 4 TiVos are now:

1) TiVo HD in master bedroom, hooked to an HD TV. (This is my TiVo.)

2) TiVo Premier in the family room, hooked to a large sized HD computer monitor.

3) S2 in kitchen hooked to a cheap SD TV.

4) S2 in a spare room that she's calls the "media room", hooked to a cheap SD TV. This is the room where her collection of recordings resides on a bunch of book shelves.

I then suggested moving one of the existing TiVos there, but she says she doesn't like that because
a) She and sometimes my son like to watch TiVo'd programs in the family room.
b) When my son is at school, and my wife is sitting in the kitchen eating lunch, she likes watching a TiVo program in the kitchen
c) She likes having a TiVo in the media room, since it's next to her recordings. Actually I suppose I could probe her on this one. Does she still actively record stuff, and that's why she wants the TiVo next to her collection? Because if she just wants to watch a recording, I'd think she could grab a disc from that room and play it in that room. (You don't need a TiVo for that.) Well, maybe she's still recording stuff. I almost never set foot in that room.

My son's bedroom has a cheap SD TV hooked to a DVD player, but no DVR - this is where she'd like a 5th TiVo. She did say she'd be perfectly happy with an S2, as she somehow doesn't care about HD quality.

Well I suppose in today's day and age, I'd think a used S2 with a lifetime sub could be found on the cheap, since most people want HD quality.

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You guys sound like you would be good candidates for the new "TiVo Mini" when and if it ever comes out. It allows you to stream content from your other TiVos without having to have cablecards or additional outlet fees from the CableCo. Supposedly, it's coming out some time this year. Maybe for Christmas?

__________________Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. --Mark Twain

That's a good suggestion, but you made me realize that even though my wife is happy to record stuff on the SD stations (I'm not though... I record everything in HD), there is no guarantee that Time Warner will keep broadcasting those SD stations.

If Time Warner ever goes to digital only, that means 2 of our TiVos (S2's), plus a 3rd if I succumb and buy her another S2, might become difficult to use. Maybe there's a way I could an S2 to communicate with a digital tuner... I'm not sure.

Your streaming option sounds like a less risky way to go. Yes, she doesn't get more space, but I could add HD space to a computer and show her how to transfer stuff to it.

I wonder if it will have to ability to stream from an S2 though.

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However, I would not bother teaching her how to push data to your pc, but instead show her how simple it is to pull the data to the Tivo.

My wife gets how to do that (she did not even need a walk-through), and enjoys that I can set up folders for her different shows, or per primary watcher, genre, ect. I use pytivo so its reliable and low overhead to the server.

Yes, I don't have pytivo, but I'd like to install it. I don't have server either, but I do have a home network. (Router with a bunch of devices connected to it.) PyTivo doesn't require an actual server, does it? Though I think it would be nice if we had a server - I don't know how to set up one though.

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Definitely sounds like you need some kind of media distribution system rather than another TiVo. That way, it won't matter what TiVo you record something on, or what TV you're trying to watch it on. Everything will be available on every TV (if you set it up that way). If SD is acceptable (to her), then I recommend BOCS. Looks like they currently have a sale going on, too, so it may be a great time to get it.

pyTivo does not need a server, I actually have it on a PC that I use for ripping/editing and on my server for longer term items (where I use subfolders and the like).

I use WHS, which is awesome and easy enough to set up for anyone who has installed windows. Too bad they are no longer updating it, however. I love the stupid-proof automatic backups of each and every PC in the house.

Definitely sounds like you need some kind of media distribution system rather than another TiVo. That way, it won't matter what TiVo you record something on, or what TV you're trying to watch it on. Everything will be available on every TV (if you set it up that way). If SD is acceptable (to her), then I recommend BOCS. Looks like they currently have a sale going on, too, so it may be a great time to get it.

That technology sounds pretty nifty. Do you know if when they inject the TiVo signal into the house cable, if it interferes any with the existing signal? When you watch a program on a BOCS channel, do you think it looks as clear as if I didn't even have BOCS installed?

I suppose one good thing is that at least our two digital TiVos and HD TVs shouldn't (I assume) be affected, since with digital, the bits are just 1's and 0's, so a weak 1 is still a 1.

The other thing is is sounds like I have to install the super combiner in front of the house's main splitter. I don't know where that's located, but maybe I can figure it out. I have a feeling it might be outside, so hopefully the super combiner is weather proof. Also, I wonder if I'd by breaking any Time Warner rules by installing something in front of Time Warner's main house splitter.

Since the set up uses RCA cables, it sounds like it's really meant for S1's and S2, and not any HD signals. But that's okay, because my wife is happy her S2's, and distributing her two S2's would probably work for her. Plus, I think I could even distributer her TiVo Premier, though if she tries to watch it outside the family room, it'll just be using the RCA cables, so it'll be SD quality. But I don't think she'll mind, plus my son's TV is just an SD TV anyhow.

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pyTivo does not need a server, I actually have it on a PC that I use for ripping/editing and on my server for longer term items (where I use subfolders and the like).

I use WHS, which is awesome and easy enough to set up for anyone who has installed windows. Too bad they are no longer updating it, however. I love the stupid-proof automatic backups of each and every PC in the house.

Perhaps you should specify exactly what you mean by "server" in this context, since I'm not sure pyTiVo could run without being on that, or "a", computer.

Unless you know how to get it to run on a flashed router or some kind of NAS box. That would be cool.

Perhaps you should specify exactly what you mean by "server" in this context, since I'm not sure pyTiVo could run without being on that, or "a", computer.

Unless you know how to get it to run on a flashed router or some kind of NAS box. That would be cool.

I did note that my server is WHS (though I certainly could have connected the dots together better).

I use pytivo on WHS (Windows Home Server) - basically a older PC that I loaded the WHS software on and connected a bunch of drives. For the record, I use v1 due to its unique treatment for pooled drives.

I believe that pytivo can run on several different NAS products, whs is just the one I have. Searching here should uncover several.

If Time Warner ever goes to digital only, that means 2 of our TiVos (S2's), plus a 3rd if I succumb and buy her another S2, might become difficult to use. Maybe there's a way I could an S2 to communicate with a digital tuner... I'm not sure.

Supposedly Tivos will control the DTAs (think "cheap cable boxes") that cable companies gave/give out when they got rid of (most) analog channels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by timckelley

Yes, I don't have pytivo, but I'd like to install it. I don't have server either, but I do have a home network. (Router with a bunch of devices connected to it.) PyTivo doesn't require an actual server, does it? Though I think it would be nice if we had a server - I don't know how to set up one though.

pyTivo *is* the server.. But at least I seem to remember it "just works". I never was able to get Galleon to do anything useful.. but pyTivo was basically run it, set the path (I set it to the same path that kmttg downloads to), and it "just works".. (I had ONE tiny problem yesterday, but that seemed to be due to me monkeying with my router.)